Watchin' For You!

J. Castwell
September 28th, 1998

Never Happened To Me?

The 'moment of truth' has come. You are exhilarated and a bit nervous. Your pulse has quickened, respiration is up, your eyes are already searching the surface of the water for signs of activity. Your waders and vest are on, everything checked, and you are stringing up your fly rod.

An almost giddy attitude has taken over. You placed the reel on the ground and made the little loop of fly line to poke up thru the guides. All is well; You have done this a thousand times. The loop of fly line emerges from the tip-top, you pull it straight out until your excited fingers have the leader, and then, right at that exact point you break your fly rod. Wow; what happened? Must have been defective, maybe I hit it with the fly sometime past. You are in shock, and you should be; you have just screwed up big-time!

Has never happened to you? Probably not; yet! It can, and may. So what went wrong? At the exact moment the leader came out, you,( instead of pulling straight in line with the rod), brought the leader out in a big swinging loop. As the line-to-leader knot caught only briefly on a guide, you blew the tip of you fly rod. Sometimes a loop will form in the fly line as it is running up thru the guides. That will do it too. Not a nice thing to have happen; makes a sickening sound. Can spoil your whole day.

Recently I watched many guys stringing rods at a dealers show in Salt Lake City, UT. It was rare indeed to see anyone remember to pull the leader straight out too. But, I did see some who did it right. Everyone I saw was a manufacturer, not a dealer. Perhaps you always do it the right way, if so, then this is not for you. If not, however, try to remember to pull the leader straight out too.

And, please don't embarrass me by asking how do I know this can happen. ~ JC

Till next week, remember ...

Keepest Thynne Baakast Upeth

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